Abstract ID: 3.13166 | Accepted as Poster | Talk/Oral | TBA | TBA

Glaciers have retreated since the maximum extent of the “Little Ice Age”. The barren forefields offer a unique opportunity to study the development of an emerging ecosystem from its beginning, providing valuable insights into successional mechanisms and underlying filtering processes. While previous studies have primarily focused on the Central Alps, there remains a knowledge gap regarding succession for the forefields in the Northern Limestone Alps.
The aim of a newly established longterm monitoring platform is to achieve a comprehensive understanding of vegetation dynamics within the context of ecosystem succession in glacier forefields of this region. To this end, the chronosequence approach (i.e., age classes time since deglaciation) is applied across four glacier forefields, namely Hallstätter Glacier, Great Gosau Glacier (both in Dachstein Mountains, Austria), Watzmann Glacier and Blaueis (both in Berchtesgaden Alps, Germany). Vegetation monitoring for the 52 permanent plots follows the GLORIA guidelines, with selected plant traits being measured, abiotic site characterization (such as substrate sampling, temperature recordings) being conducted, and remote sensing methods being applied.
Plant communities change with the age since deglaciation in all study areas, but less distinctly for the plots in Berchtesgaden than for Dachstein Mountains. Beta-total-Diversity is split into Beta-replacement (substitution of one taxon by another) and Beta-richness (species addition) to quantify the relative importance of these two components, with Beta-richness contributing more to Beta-total than Beta-replacement in the present study. A higher proportion of exclusive late colonizers was predominantly detected than of exclusive early species. Species richness (Alpha-Diversity), total plant cover and frequency increase with the age. However, these trends occur at a much slower rate than reported in the Central Alps.
Moreover, as part of ongoing research, initial trait analyses based on database entries have so far revealed only a few clear patterns, while in-depth analyses using trait field measurements are still underway. The influence of environmental parameters on shaping succession is also actively being investigated.